Every mechanism that turned audio attention into revenue is breaking at the same time.
Podcasting & Audio
Podcasting's most valuable product — a trusted host personally vouching for you — is being sold like cheap automated ad space. About $107 million a year of premium is quietly draining away, even as total ad revenue booms past $3 billion.
Podcasting & Audio
Smart speakers were meant to become shopping machines. Instead people set timers and play music. Shipments are falling and makers are retreating — yet the growth forecasts for voice shopping haven't moved.
Podcasting & Audio
Automatically-sold podcast ad slots are multiplying faster than advertisers can buy them. Mid-sized shows take the hit while top shows stay protected — and pre-agreed deals hide the slide. We put $158m a year at risk.
Podcasting & Audio
Podcasting charges a premium for ads read by a trusted human host. Cheap voice cloning can now fake that voice, and no US law protects it. We see $194m a year at risk — and the market hasn't priced it.
Podcasting & Audio
SiriusXM has lost paying subscribers three years running. Older listeners are leaving, younger drivers stream from their phones, and the cheap $8 plan meant to defend volume quietly cuts the average payment. The decline looks built-in, not temporary.
Podcasting & Audio
Machine-made shows are already about 35% of new podcast feeds, at $1 each, with no rule forcing anyone to say so. We see $196 million of yearly ad value at risk across a $3 billion market.
Podcasting & Audio
Congress pulled about $1.1bn from public broadcasting, and the fund that cushioned shortfalls is closing. The deeper threat: a listener base averaging 65.5 years old, with just 1% under 25, that is not being replaced.
Podcasting & Audio
Keyword filters meant for web ads are wrongly blocking news podcasts — $114 million a year is at risk. The same blunt tools that over-blocked news online now starve audio.
Podcasting & Audio
The slow decline of US radio is becoming a cull. About $1.1bn a year in AM/FM ad revenue is exposed as debt-loaded owners start shutting stations — and all three big owners have already restructured or gone bankrupt.